


Copper for your thoughts

by epersonae



Series: Aftermath [14]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Forgiveness, It's all conversation, M/M, Post-Canon, Talking, like a lot of talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-31 03:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12666996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: Kravitz has a lot on his mind. Taako worries about who he is. An old bargain is discussed.





	Copper for your thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> Specifically references [Another Deal With Death](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11410356). (to the point where I was looking up dialogue)

“Copper for your thoughts, bone daddy?”

“Hmmm.” Kravitz’s brow furrowed. 

“Oh. Oh, you are thinking about something deep. Spill it.”

His frown deepened and he shook his head slightly. 

“Ok, now you're worrying me, my man.”

“It's not really anything,” said Kravitz. 

“Well now  _ that's  _ bullshit.” He threw his arms around Kravitz’s neck. “If anyone knows what avoidance looks like, it's cha’boy, and you're doing it right now. Hit me with it, I'm a big boy.”

Kravitz just looked at him with serious steady eyes. 

“Magnus.”

“Big meaty dreamboat, likes dogs. I'm aware of him.”

“And Lucretia.”

Taako let out a long huff. 

“Precisely.”

“Everybody's got a weakness,” Taako said, not meeting Kravitz’s gaze. 

“But you were friends.”

Taako’s nostrils flared.

“And you tried to kill Merle with virulent crystal. Stuff happens. People change.”

“I worry about you.”

He frowned.

“Don’t.”

“Are you mad at him?”

“Am I mad at him? I’m going to be mad at  _ you _ in a hot second, skele-man.  _ This _ is what you’re thinking about?”

Kravitz shrugged uneasily. 

“Yeah, let’s not have this talk right now,” said Taako, stepping back and staring at him. “Mad love you, homeslice, but I’m not….” He sighed. “I’m gonna go get us a drink, and you’re going to think about something different, and we’ll try this again.”

* * *

“I should tell you something,” said Kravitz. Taako stood in the doorway holding a pair of cocktails, something simple but with a maraschino cherry. He paused before crossing into the room.

“That never bodes well, my dude. Literally no one ever says ‘I should tell you something’ and it’s actually how they’re secretly hella rich or whatevs. Instead it’s that they’re under an ancient curse or slept with your cousin or some bullshit.”

Kravitz let out a long breath.

“Then...never mind?”

“No no, that’s the other problem. You can’t say that shit and then unsay it. Doesn’t work that way. Now you just gotta, I dunno, confess to stealing my lost millions or eating all the marzipan. You didn’t eat plain marzipan, did you?”

“No, dear.”

“Good, I didn’t think you were that kind of monster.” Taako still hovered in the doorway; Kravitz inclined his head towards him.

“Come sit with me, my love?”

Taako’s eyebrows went up noticeably, but he crossed the few feet, set down the glasses, and sat on the couch near Kravitz.

“Is this about Maggie? Is he too much? Is it not working for you?”

Kravitz chuckled and gave Taako a fond smile.

“It’s very good with Magnus. Don’t worry about that.” He took one of Taako’s hands in his; Taako shivered.

“That’s almost skeleton temp, babe. You are worried….” His voice tapered off and he bit his lip. “What’s wrong? What did I…?”

Kravitz took another deep breath, even though it wasn’t strictly necessary: the movement of his chest in that nearly-forgotten rhythm helped center his thoughts.

“So.” He looked up, then back at Taako. “After our date, that first….”

“Cab and vase, baby. Gotcha.”

“Yes. After that, I had to clean up some of the, uh, outstanding issues with, um….”

Taako squeezed his hand.

“I had these bounties, and the Raven Queen and Istus had, you know….”

“Some lady to lady deals happened, yeah, I remember that bit.”

“Well, it wasn’t just you and Magnus and Merle that the deal applied to.”

Taako held very still, except for one foot, which started tapping nervously.

“I take it you see what I’m getting at,” said Kravitz softly.

“You talked to her.” Taako’s voice was cool and flat.

Kravitz let out a dry chuckle.

“It was...not what I expected. I mean” — he chuckled again, warmer this time — “none of you were anything that I expected.” He squeezed Taako’s hand. “But she was so...cool, so composed. You were all so confused and flippant, and she….”

Taako huffed.

“Yup, that was Madame Director. The...” He paused. They’d had a few conversations about appropriate words. “...the woman with all the cool. Funny how that works when you’re the one holding all the cards.”

“Taako, dear.”

Taako rolled his eyes.

“No, just let me finish.” He set one hand on Taako’s knee until the foot stopped tapping. “Thank you, darling. Here’s the thing about that.” One more deep breath. “Well, two things. First, she asked me not to say anything to, uh, to you about her death count.” Taako winced and his hand twitched in Kravitz’s grasp. “Taako, in my defense, she implied that it would be dangerous for you.” Taako drew in a long hiss of a breath. “And secondly, I asked if I could trust her. With you, I mean.”

“Really.”

“You had such a terrifyingly dangerous job,” said Kravitz, his voice taut with yearning and memory. “I was afraid for you. And I wanted...I wanted to trust her.”

Taako let out a raw bark of a laugh.

“Well that’s interesting. And what did ol’ Lucy have to say?”

Kravitz looked down at Taako’s hands under his own.

“She said she did her best. That was it. And Taako, my dearest, light of my heart, Taako: I believed her.” He paused. “I still believe her, at least in so much as that’s what she believed.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Kravitz let go of Taako’s hands and with one hand tipped Taako’s chin up to look at him.

“I never. You know that. I belong to you entirely, and if you never want to speak of her or to her, I can keep a pact of silence for a thousand years. But I think you should know. I think it’s important. Have you never done a foolish thing out of love?”

The wounded laugh in Taako’s throat seized up and he looked away.

“You see the best in everyone, skelly,” he said in a choked voice. “What the hell is up with that?”

Kravitz took his hand, turned it over, kissed the palm.

“As long as they’re not bringing back the dead, my love.”

* * *

Taako slurped the last of his drink and started chewing on a sliver of ice. Kravitz watched him silently, then said, “Copper for  _ your  _ thoughts?”

Taako hummed. For a second, his foot twitched again, then he went still. 

“Do you think I'm cruel? Do I seem…. Callous?”

Kravitz gave him a long steady look before speaking. 

“No, I don't think I could call you either callous or cruel.”

Taako frowned at him as if that was the wrong answer. 

“You asked about us being friends, you know, before, me and Luce.”

“Mmmm.” Kravitz fished the cherry out of his half-finished drink. 

“And like, Lup is the other half of me, but I think Creesh was really my only  _ friend _ . Maybe it was just bonding over Handsy Burnsides, at the beginning, but then…. I dunno. We always had a certain  _ way _ , you know?”

“How so?”

“Ugh. You're going to make me do this? Look. Lup and Magnus, they're big open bright-burning types. Me and Lucretia? Tight. Wary. We're good out here, you dig? I mean I always talked more, but there's….” He shook his head impatiently. “Shit, Krav, if I knew how to explain it….”

Kravitz tied the cherry stem into a knot. “You're afraid that you're like her.” He set the stem on the table beside their glasses. 

“Hooboy. You know how to cut right to the chase, dontcha?” He glanced at Kravitz and then away. “Ruthless. There was a world, I mean you know this, everybody knows it now…. I was one hundo percent ready to destroy every living soul. Lulu talked us into something different. Lup did that.” He sighed. “Without Lu…. I got in a wagon and drove away from killing…. Or at least I thought I'd killed….” He shook his head. “Without the crew, without, I guess, Magnus, she built a fucking army. Ruthless. You called her cold.”

“Cool, but go ahead.” Kravitz put a hand on Taako’s knee. Taako looked down at it, blinking. 

“Yeah, a couple of real cool customers. I don't want to forgive her.”

“You don't have to.”

Taako laughed. 

“Well sure, my dude. Obvs.”

“But?”

He took Kravitz’s hand. 

“Mmmmm, icy. That'll keep a fella focused.”

Kravitz smiled. 

“You were saying?”

“And that's it. I don't  _ want  _ to forgive. Even though Agnes wants me to forgive, and Lup wants me to forgive, and Merle wants me to forgive, natch, and maybe  _ because  _ Magnus wants me to…. Does he think it's gonna be like….”

“I don't think he thinks it can be what it was for you before,” said Kravitz, squeezing Taako’s knee. 

“So yeah. I don't wanna, and I keep second-guessing myself and wondering if I'm just cruel.”

“You have feelings,” said Kravitz. “They're complicated, multi-dimensional. It's okay.” Taako huffed, flaring his nostrils. “I'm not going to judge  _ you _ any more than I do anyone else. Forgive or don't, it's your choice. As long as you're thinking about it.”

“Thanks, I guess, for letting me have my own feelings.” He stood and walked to the window. Kravitz chuckled. 

* * *

Kravitz stood behind Taako, wrapping his arms around him. As always, Taako shivered for a moment, then pulled him closer.

There were so many things Kravitz would have liked to say:

  * Everyone asking Taako to forgive just loved him and wanted him to be happy. 
  * Lucretia too, had always loved him, in her own way, and as poorly as that had turned out. 
  * With her human lifespan, already half gone, he wouldn't have much longer to either hate or forgive. 
  * Same also for Magnus, who loved them all so fully and unreservedly. 
  * It was, perhaps, a little cruel to resent those two spending a portion of their dwindling time with each other. And yet, understandable. 



There was more, of course, but in any case, it had already been too much for one evening. So Kravitz simply nuzzled into Taako’s hair, breathing in his sweet-smelling warmth and hoping that Taako at least knew a little bit of how much he was loved. 

**Author's Note:**

> Never thought I was going to write as much taakitz (kraagnus, technically, but who's counting?) as I have been, but getting obsessed with the Lucretia-Taako conflict just kinda led me here, and now I too am in love with Kravitz.
> 
> Also: [liner notes](https://epersonae.tumblr.com/post/167274107420/copper-for-your-thoughts-epersonae-the).


End file.
